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The Marble is a red brick pub that was built towards the end of the 19th Century on Rochdale Road, about 10 minutes walk north of Manchester city centre (near the Royal Mail Sorting office).

The pub is very traditional inside with tiling floor to ceiling, old inscriptions of what they serve up near the ceiling and black and white prints on the walls. When you come in at the front entrance the floor slopes ever so slightly downwards as you walk towards the bar at the end of the main room (it does this even if you are stone cold sober, honestly). There is another very small room behind this with a few extra tables, although this is just an overflow room really, and leads to the beer garden, which is nothing that special but nice enough in the summer. They've not made that much effort out there so your view is mainly of a load of beer barrels and a high fence topped with barb wire but there are a few tables on a little patio where you can make the most of the sunshine, when we get it!

The pub contains its own microbrewery brewing various real ales including regulars Ginger Marble, Pint, Stouter and Manchester Bitter as well as seasonal beers such as Chocolate (in winter) and other taps that change regularly. They also serve some other guest beers and a cider, along with a few standards like Guiness and Carlsberg and all the normal spirits you'd find in any pub. They also seem to have a decent range of wines and plenty of bottles of foreign lager. Prices are fairly average I think for beer but the spirits seem a bit expensive, although I'm usually the only one in there not drinking beer!

They also sell gift boxes of their beer in bottles and t shirts behind the bar if you feel like you need a souvenir!

The pub attracts the real ale crowd for obvious reasons and gets very busy when the real ale festival is on at a venue nearby. There are also quite a few other real ale pubs nearby so I think some groups work their way through them all through the afternoon/evening! It's not exclusively full of this crowd though, it gets a fairly decent mix, with younger people also going in on their way to town and a handful of students too and is usually busy without ever being packed full.

It's got a bit of a reputation for food too over the last few years and has quite an extensive (and quite expensive!) food menu up on the wall, including quite a few seafood dishes, steaks etc and a couple of burgers and sandwiches, along with the longest list of cheeses I have ever seen, which you can choose to have a small selection of, or to share a larger section between a group.

There is a juke box in there with some decent tunes on it but for some reason they always have it on really quiet, even if you ask them to turn it up a bit. So if the pub has more than a few people I wouldn't bother wasting your money on it as you will barely hear your selection!

There are currently no TVs in the pub (this may change during the world cup!) and I can't remember seeing a fruit machine.

The staff are always friendly enough and will tell you about the beer if you ask.

The Marble has another pub on Manchester road in Chorlton called the Marble Beerhouse and are soon to open another one on Thomas Street in the Northern Quarter. You can also find their beers at a few other pubs in Manchester sometimes.

So overall, it's definitely worth visiting if you fancy a traditional pub, especially if you like beer.

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Proper English pub

The Marble Arch! Wasn't expecting to find this on here.This is a real man's pub, but only due to its clientele. If you were to impartially judge the venue on its food and drink it would appeal to anyone, but if you were to walk in on any night you might be prejudiced by the stalwarts that frequent its halls, and keep it from a fresh crowd.It's an old building, quite charming in its interior, although its location in the middle of nowhere on a main road might not be particularly appealing.The main difference between this pub and most others is that it brews its own beer, which it sells on its own taps and to other bars and pubs around Manchester as well. I'm never surprised when i see it on taps dotted around the area, as it is quite popular.It's a small place, but with enough character and inherent quality of food and drink to keep it going and to keep those who try it once to keep going back again and again, as long as the location isn't too much of a pain.